NAME

oss_midiloop - Loopback MIDI driver.

DESCRIPTION

The loopback midi driver makes it possible to create special purpose
virtual midi devices based on user land server processes.

INTRODUCTION

MIDI loopback devices are like named pipes or pseudo terminals. They
are grouped in client and server device pairs. The server side device
must be open before the client side device can be opened.
SERVERSIDEDEVICE
The server side device is used by some special application (such as a
software based MIDI synthesizer) to receice MIDI events from the
applications that want to play MIDI.
CLIENTSIDEDEVICE
Client applications such as MIDI players open the client side device
when they need to play some MIDI stream (file). The client side device
behaves like any "ordinary" MIDI device. However it cannot be opened
when there is no program connected to the server side.

COMPATIBILITYISSUES

MIDI loopback devices differ from "normal" MIDI devices because an
application is needed at the both ends of the loop. The loop device
will return a "Connection reset by peer" error (ECONNRESET) error.
Applications designed to be used as loopback based server applications
can/should use this error (returned by read or write) as an end-of-
stream indication.